The purpose of this page is to help students understand how to do the internal assessment in IB Economics and to give students a resource to help them while they are working on their portfolios.
The internal assessment in economics involves writing a portfolio of three commentaries on articles related to the topics that we cover in our course. IB calls the articles extracts. Each commentary must focus on a different section of the syllabus. The three commentaries are examined and marked individually. For HL students the IA is 20% of your final mark in IB Economics and for SL students it counts as 25% of the final mark.
Each commentary should be 650-750 words. The following are not included in the word count:
• Acknowledgments • Contents page • Diagrams • Labels—of five words or fewer • Headings on diagrams—of 10 words or fewer • Tables of statistical data • Equations, formulae and calculations • Citations (which, if used, must be in the body of the commentary) • References (which, if used, must be in the footnotes/endnotes)
Please note that footnotes/endnotes may be used for references only. Definitions of economic terms and quotations, if used, must be in the body of the work and are included in the word count. Please note that a citation is a shorthand method of making a reference in the body of the commentary, which is then linked to
the full reference in the footnotes/endnotes.
Intro Assignment
Part 1: Do the following three tasks on the internet.
Evaluating Sources: First, click on the link to the left and complete the tutorial on the website (Internet Detective) to learn a little about how to evaluate sources. This will help you make better choices in choosing your extracts.
Economics Research: It will be helpful to you, if you take the time to search web sites whose focus is economics. Click the link above and do the tutorial on the website (Internet for Economics) to help you with this.
Internet Searches: Finally, watch the following YouTube tutorial to learn how to use search engines and the internet more effectively.
Part 2: Your homework is to come to class next time with your exract in hard copyand an outline. The extract should be on a topic from Section 2 (Microeconomics) in the IB Economcis syllabus.
How do I choose an extract?
You should avoid using articles from the Economist and the Wall Street Journal. Your extract should be related to at least one of the cocepts/theories that we have studied in class. It should be relatively short. You should try to choose an extract that does not have much analysis and evaluation. You are responsible for the analysis and evaluation.
The extracts must come from four DIFFERENT sources.
The extracts can be from newspapers, magazines, journals and the internet.
The extracts cannot be from television or radio broadcasts.
If your extract is from the internet, news media websites are the only appropriate sources.
The article/extract must be published no more than one year before the writing of the commentary.
A good outline will:
Identify the topic that you plan to write about. For example, you could identify price floors, negative externalities or excise taxes as topics.
Identify the terms that you will probably define in your commentary. You do need to have them defined in the outline.
Identify the diagrams that you most likely use in your commentary. For example, a commentary on pollution will most likely use a graph depicting the effects of a negative externality on a market.
Identify a few ways that you may evaluate the commentary.
Evaluation Checklist: What examiners are looking for are the higher level skills of analysis and evaluation. There are many ways you can evaluate in an internal assessment or paper. Consider the following checklist as you write your commentaries or papers:
:
Have you identified causes, consequences and/or remedies?
Have you prioritised the most important issues, causes, stakeholders?
What are the most important advantages and disadvantages of situations or issues identified in the articles?
What are the short-term and long-term implications of economic strategies suggested in the article or by you, in your examination of the situation?
Have you questioned the validity of data presented in the article, in terms of whether it is appropriate, whether it is reliable, or whether it is still relevant?
When summarizing or employing an economic theory, have you questioned its validity, in terms of whether it is appropriate, whether it is reliable, or whether it is still relevant?
THREE EASY QUESTIONS you could ask about each of the articles in the IA portfolio or questions for Papers 1-3 are:
Who are the winners and losers of this? (who are the affected stakeholders?)
What are the long and short term consequences?
Which of the arguments that are presented are the most convincing and why?
Useful phrases to help with evaluation: Employing the following phrases can be helpful in making evaluations in your commentary.
On the other hand......
However, in the long/short term......
The most important cost is..... because....
..is somewhat insignificant compared to ...
Other stakeholders such as....
In reality the theory may not hold true because....
The Economics IB Internal Assessment
The purpose of this page is to help students understand how to do the internal assessment in IB Economics and to give students a resource to help them while they are working on their portfolios.
IA Guide.pdf
- Details
- Download
- 13 MB
The IB Economist A Great Blog with lots and lots of articles specifically for the IA in Economics:http://ibeconomist.blogspot.jp/
Powerpoint Guide
Guide
More information on how to write your commentaries can be found here in this guide:
Examples
Full Mark Portfolio:Individual Commentaries:
Micro:
Sample IB Economics Internal Assessment Commentary - Micro.docx
Macro:
StudentA_example01_en.pdf
Sample IB Economics Internal Assessment Commentary - Macro.docx
Trade:
StudentA_example02_en.pdf
Development
Examiner Feedback
Here is some feedback from the above samples:
IB Economics - Student A feedback.docx
Essential Forms
You must submit a cover sheet with each commentary:
A one page summary sheet for the whole portfolio:
1. Whitgift collectioncoversheet.docx
Help Documents
IA Description
The internal assessment in economics involves writing a portfolio of three commentaries on articles related to the topics that we cover in our course. IB calls the articles extracts. Each commentary must focus on a different section of the syllabus. The three commentaries are examined and marked individually. For HL students the IA is 20% of your final mark in IB Economics and for SL students it counts as 25% of the final mark.Each commentary should be 650-750 words. The following are not included in the word count:
• Acknowledgments
• Contents page
• Diagrams
• Labels—of five words or fewer
• Headings on diagrams—of 10 words or fewer
• Tables of statistical data
• Equations, formulae and calculations
• Citations (which, if used, must be in the body of the commentary)
• References (which, if used, must be in the footnotes/endnotes)
Please note that footnotes/endnotes may be used for references only. Definitions of economic terms and
quotations, if used, must be in the body of the work and are included in the word count. Please note that a
citation is a shorthand method of making a reference in the body of the commentary, which is then linked to
the full reference in the footnotes/endnotes.
Intro Assignment
- A good outline will:
- Identify the topic that you plan to write about. For example, you could identify price floors, negative externalities or excise taxes as topics.
- Identify the terms that you will probably define in your commentary. You do need to have them defined in the outline.
- Identify the diagrams that you most likely use in your commentary. For example, a commentary on pollution will most likely use a graph depicting the effects of a negative externality on a market.
- Identify a few ways that you may evaluate the commentary.
Evaluation Checklist: What examiners are looking for are the higher level skills of analysis and evaluation. There are many ways you can evaluate in an internal assessment or paper. Consider the following checklist as you write your commentaries or papers:Newspaper Sources:
Guardian.co.uk Economics section
Telegraph.co.uk Economics section
bbc.co.uk Business section
Cambridge IGCSE Student Page
Timesonline.co.uk Economics section
The economist